Osaka 大阪, Japan Trip (Day 8)

11th March 2017, Saturday

Arghh....last day in Japan, meaning my holidays ending soon. We all got up late today and my friends showered first. So while i was showering, they started to pack their luggage. After we were done, we checked out of the hotel and went to Dontonari street to pass time. We went to Kinryu Ramen (the ramen shop with a chinese dragon statue) for breakfast. It was not bad and after that, we went to have some snacks. I noticed there was ichiran ramen around too, wasted, didn't see it earlier. We could have it for breakfast instead....hahaha.....Then we shopped around and played arcade to pass time. My friend got to tikam tsum tsum keychains and she got around 5 or 6 of it home...hahahaa...I only got 2 of it...so lousy....Then we went to rest in Starbucks where i sat until almost fall asleep...

We decided to go for the crabs again as our lunch. So we went to Kani Doraku, the main branch but we had to wait until 1.40 pm for our meal. We were seated at the 4th level and the experience was the same as my previous trip. We also ordered 2 crabs sets with king crabs to share. It was nice and i felt soo full and satisfied. Definitely will eat again if i go Osaka the next time....hehee....It was almost 4 plus by the time we finished our long lunch. So we headed back to the hotel to collect our luggage and headed down to the airport by train.

We had to travel to Namba station to take the JR line to Tenoji station and change to the Kansai Airport express train. So i went up to the JR office to reserve the train seats for the express train when we reached Tenoji station It was a 30 mins ride to the airport and the train looked kind of old but quite clean. When we reached the airport, the check -in counters were not opened so we walked around to get dinner. We went to have some bento and after that, we went to buy more goodies before going to the check-in counters.

 After checking in our luggage, we went to sit at Starbucks and we bought tumblers. I bought a Kobe design tumbler instead as there was no design for Himeji. When it was about time to proceed to the boarding gate, we made our way there and bought goodies again along the way...hahaha....We boarded the plane at 10.45 pm and i was allocated to seat with a big-sized businessman. He boarded at the very last minute and was super busy talking on the phone. He also kept using his laptop the whole time he was awake. During meal time, one of the air stewardesses had some drinks dripped on his clothes and the stewardess had no idea on it, till the passenger complained. I just watched movies throughout the journey and we landed back to Singapore at around 5 plus in the morning.

And my holidays had ended.....Back to school and work...hohoho..

Himeji 姫路, Japan Trip (Day 7)

10th March 2017, Friday

Today was a travel-alone day for me as i had planned to head down to Himeji from Osaka. As my friends had not decided where to go, so i went ahead to prepare my day trip. I left the hotel before them and headed down to the main train station. The train staff had gave a 10 mins later train, which i hurried to buy my breakfast and rushed up to the platform in time. It was a 45 mins ride from Osaka to Himeji, so i reached there around 9.45 am. Then i went to the tourists information area to get some travel information.

From the train station, i could the super white castle, which is the Himeji castle from a distance. Then i walked to the bus terminal to get the bus tickets to Mt Shosha. From the bus terminal, i had to take a bus to the ropeway terminal and from the ropeway terminal, i had to take the ropeway up to the top of the mountain. All in all, it took 1 hour plus to reach the mountain. When i reached the ticket counter, there was one monk to ask the visitors whether to take bus or walk. It costed around 1000 yen for the bus ride up to the temple. Alternatively, it cost 500 yen to walk on your own up. So i chose to walk on my own up.

It was quite interesting to walk on the path up, there were many Guan Yin statues in different forms along the path and each of them had a donation box in front of it. When i reached halfway, there was a spot where i can see Himeji city below. It was quite a great sight and the best was it was super quiet on the mountain. There was not a single soul or car around (but it can get a little scary)...hahaaa....I could only hear sound of some birds and wind blowing. I took a long time to reach the first hall. There were many different rooms along the way, however, the rooms were not opened. There was also a hall with 33 buddha statues in it. There was a small shop selling some food and there were a small group of people around. After which, i continued walking for my exploration. I reached an area where there were 3 halls sitting side by side. One of the halls was a student hall and there were 2 students studying there. One hall had some exhibits on the 2nd floor and oh man, it was cold with my shoes off. Beside it, there was a tomb of hondas, where there were about 6 shrines in it.

After that, i tried to walk to the highest peak and i should have taken a walking stick with me. It was quite tiring hiking that mountain. Luckily, my friends didn't join me today...think they will start scolding me...hahaaa....I spent my whole morning walking around the mountain but i think there were many places i had missed it. I headed back to the ropeway station around 1 pm and there were a group of children waiting for the ropeway. So i waited for the next trip, by the time i reached back to the bus terminal, it was around 2.30 pm.

Shoro Bell Tower

Hokke-Do

View from the Peak

Only eating place

As the closing time for Himeji castle was around 5 pm, i had to walk quickly to the castle. I bought the ticket and went in for my adventure. It was grand and it was very white, with the blue sky in the background. And it was very big...even bigger than Osaka castle. It consisted of 1 big keep and 2 small keeps and a super long corridor surrounding the castle. The main keep had 6 levels and i had to take off my shoes to go up each level and carry my shoes around. It was crowded inside too and saw a drunk uncle on one of the floors. There were plenty of history on the castle and its ground. The surrounding walls had triangle, rectangle and circle shapes and it was meant that the holes are meant for weapons like bow & arrows, guns to attack the enemies. There were also stories like a grandma had donated her hand mill stone to the Castle Lord, Hashiba Hideyoshi at the time of building the castle. There was also a stone coffin whereby it was unearthed from a burial ground and used in a stone wall during the original construction of the castle. Inside the main keep, there were rooms to keep their weapons and a super small warriors hiding room.

Himeji Castle

To defend the castle

Hand Mill Stone

Stone Coffin

Weapons Shelfs

Warriors Hiding Room

After which, i headed to one part of the corridor where there were rooms showing the life of Princess Sen but there was not enough time for me to complete all as it was almost to the closing time. After the castle tour, i walked back to the train station and bought a few of souvenirs at the shops opposite the castle. Bought a lot of the gold coins there too and missed my return train. I wasn't sure the closing time of the JR office, so i was rushing back to the train station to get a return ticket to Osaka. There was a ramen shop that looked nice but was unable to try it. When i finally reached the JR office, it was still open and managed to get a return ticket.

So i ended up eating in one of the eatery in the station. I reached Osaka at around 8 plus and my friends had not returned from their day trip. I finally bought the famous Osaka gyoza to try....hohoho....They had actually traveled back to Kyoto for shopping....hahaa....Hence, i reached the hotel earlier and had my hot shower. When the two came back, they had bought a lot of goodies back...heheee

Hotel Stayed:
Yamatoya Honten

Osaka 大阪, Japan Trip (Day 6)

9th March 2017, Thursday

It's time to check out from Kyoto and head down to Osaka today. So we packed our luggage and headed down to the train station. As it was early, we got McD for our breakfast to eat on the train.
When the train arrived, we all boarded and got onto our seat. It was a 10 mins ride to Kyoto and my friends did not managed to finish their breakfast....hahahaa....Then we headed to the metro and traveled down to the hotel. We reached there about 10 plus in the morning. I was surprised the hotel was just opposite the street of Dotonbori and we could see the famous giant crab restaurant from our hotel room.

As it was still early for us to check into our room, we left our luggage and decided to head down to the Osaka Castle. We walked to the metro station and reached the castle around 11 plus. We also had to walk a long way to the castle door. Along the walk, we bought a corn and a bbq cuttlefish. The stall owner asked us where we came from, it was kind of funny as the 3 of us came from different countries. The stall owner also tried to speak to me in Mandarin. Then we continued walking to the castle main gate. There were food stalls on the castle ground and my friend bought a giant crab stick for 700 yen. It was damn nice!!

Giant Snow Crab Sticks..Yummy!

After eating, we went to buy the entrance tickets and headed up into the castle. It was super crowded inside, and we just walked each floor by floor to see the exhibits. After spending some time, we headed back down to level 1. We were playing with the coin engraving machine, it was not cheap though. There were other people being curious on what we were doing while we were using the machine and started to get for them too. After that, we went to walk through the cherry blossom garden outside the castle. There were some trees with sakura flowers and they were beautiful.

After the castle tour, we headed down to shinsaibashi streets and we had ramen in a small ramen shop. After lunch, i brought them to Pablo shop and there was a queue as usual. We decided to get one before going back to the hotel. Then we went shopping in the Disney store, followed that i went on to shop for a new pair of shoes in onitsuka tiger shop. Manged to buy a pair which i like, and it costed around $80 plus after tax refund. (I wearing it everyday to work....hehehee). After that, one of my friends informed that they will head back to the hotel first, so we got a cake from Pablo and they went back. I continued to walk around the streets on my own till late afternoon when i realised i had reached the hotel. So i headed back to the room and it was a tatami style room. There were tea set and snacks provided for us too.

Then i rested while trying to persuade my friends to go for crabs as dinner. Eventually managed to get them to leave the hotel room for crabs dinner. We headed to the one opposite the street, one of Kani Doraku's branches. We had to wait until 7.30 pm and so we walked around the streets to pass time first. It was slightly cold, i got my friends to try the giant scallop i bought in my previous trip. It was still sweet and big but the price had increased. After walking for some time, we went back for our main dinner.

We were seated on the 3rd floor and we ordered two crab sets to share. There were a group of china tourists sitting in front of us and i noticed that one of the staffs was able to speak to them in Mandarin. There was a slight different in the experience, as compared as i had in their main branch.When it was time to cook the porridge, the staff did not let us taste whether the soup was too salty. Instead she tried it herself and continued cooking. Anyway, it was not that salty and still quite nice. We were so full after the meal. My friends were fighting for the fruits too...hahaa...The peach was quite sweet and nice...Too bad my friend didn't get to taste after the other one dropped it.hehehe...

After the delicious dinner, we headed back to the hotel to have our Pablo cake...sooo full!!
Then we all showered and get ready for bed. That's the end of our day.

Hotel Stayed:
Yamatoya Honten